


After War

by Meteor752



Series: The Meteorverse (It was the best I could come up with) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Blood, Blood and Gore, But you can't do much with trash, Crying, F/F, F/M, How Do I Tag, I have been trying to fix it up, I wrote this when I was twelve don't judge me, I'm not good at it, Infinity Stone Soul World (Marvel), M/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), So it's not graphic, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Hela Odindottir, Trans Male Character, Trans Peter Parker, but like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25153636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meteor752/pseuds/Meteor752
Summary: The snap was done, and half the universe gone (Nice rhyme ik)With the Avengers broken and split out across the universe and the X-Men without their leaders  the hopes of a comeback is small.That is until they get help from some certain Asgardian siblings and a unique duo with knowledge and spirit of bringing the broken group together to try a wicked plan to save the fallen Heroes.But will the Avengers be able to travel through time with a mad Titan chasing them through it?Read to find out.This was the original description. Terrible, isn't it?Yeah I wrote this when I was younger, but I want to do some shit with it afterwards, so The fic maybe be poorly written (I will try to fix it up), there will be more of it, which will turn out better (Hopefully)
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Hela (Marvel), Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Jean Grey/Jubilation Lee, Loki/Thor (Marvel), Pietro Maximoff/Kurt Wagner, Scott Lang/Hope Van Dyne, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, T'Challa/Sam Wilson (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff/Vision
Series: The Meteorverse (It was the best I could come up with) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822165
Comments: 11
Kudos: 32





	1. Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to explain a quick thing here, that this is a Soulmate AU. I made this one up once in class when I sat and doodled on my arm writing quotes, and I was just like 'Huh, I can make something out of this'
> 
> So it's basically that words appear on your skin around puberty. These words are black when they first appear, and at some point in your life, your soulmate will say them. When they do, the words turn midnight blue. But if your Soulmate dies, they turn crimson red and it's like a piece of your heart is ripped out of your chest. There are rare occasions that you don't have a soulmate, and that can be if they died before you were born or there was something wrong with you when you were born. There are five places the words can appear, and it's the same on both persons. Your wrist, the back of your neck, your ankle, the inside of your elbow or on your stomach. It's random where they appear. On even more rare occasions the soulmates meet and hate each other, but it's not unusual for the mates to never meet.  
> But anyways bye, enjoy!

_"I'm sorry"_

Those words, those last damn words echo through Tony's head. Those exact words will probably haunt him for years. Words that will never leave his mind, because those words were the last ones Peter spoke.

Tony blamed himself. He should not have let Peter join him, neither let him go to space. He should have sent him home when he found him on the space ship, he should never have recruited him two years ago in the first place.

He looked around, seeing no one. Was he the only one left?

_"There was no other way" "Something's happening" "Quill?" "Aw man"_

They all flashed through his mind at once.

Everything hurts. His wound, his mind, his thoughts, everything. But mostly his wound.

"Get up," The voice was from a woman, but she didn't sound anywhere near human. It was quite robotic.

Tony looked up and the blue woman-Is she even a woman? Yea, it's a woman, Tony decided- and she looked at him with coldness.

"Why? Last I checked we're stuck, and we will die here. I have already started to grow insane," The woman looked at him like if he just had cracked a joke she didn't find funny.

"We're not stuck, The Benatar should be here somewhere," Tony was too tired and injured to question what she meant by that.

"I'm not leaving him," Tony still had his hand on the ground where Peter was just a couple of minutes ago.

"There's Nothing you can do Stark, he's gone," And that is when it truly hit him. Peter is dead.

"No..." He mumbles, closing his fist, tears of anger burns in his eyes.

"Accept it and let go, because we need to go. Earth was the place the last Infinity Stone was correct?" Tony nods slowly, trying not to think of Vision, "Then let's go," She managed to get him on his feet, but he needed help to walk at all.

There was a silence between the two of them as they walked to the ship that was oddly named The Benatar

It was silent when she started the ship as well, and silent when they flew off.

"Was he your son?" The woman breaks the silence without even looking at him.

"No, but the nearest one I will ever have" Tony mumbles. And then there's more silence. Tony doesn't like silence.

"Who was Gamora that Quill yelled about?" Tony could see that the woman flinched a little, but she quickly composes herself before speaking.

"When I was young Thanos attacked my planet and killed half the population," She said, her eyes cold, "He must have seen something in me, because he brought me back with him, adopted me as his own daughter," She paused, as if thinking of what to say, "He had many children from different worlds, but one of his favorites was Gamora. He used to make us fight, and every time I lost he would replace a limb with technology. Gamora always won, and I wanted to hate her for it, but indifference from the other children, she hated Thanos just as I did" The woman let out a laugh, which sounded odd with her robotic voice, "She became my favorite sister, the only person that I have ever liked" The woman's smile disappeared from her face "A time ago I went to kill Thanos, but I failed. He captured me, took me apart and tortured me. Then he came to me with Gamora, demanding her to tell him the location of the soul stone, or he would have killed me. She was stupid enough to spare my life, for billions of lives, including her own."

Tony had no idea what to say. Things had happened in his life, yes, but nothing compared to that.

"I'm sorry for your loss" He mumbles.

"Same" She still hadn't met his eyes, which was almost a relief because Tony don't think he could take that right now, but he did see one small single tear roll down her cheek.

* * *

"Oh God" Steve mumbled. Vision's corpse was in front of him, his empty eyes staring out at nothing, with what was left of Wanda beside him.

"What just happened?" Rhodey looked around at the people who were left, and it wasn't many who was.

"I think...I think we lost" Steve mumbled. He couldn't believe it. No one could. They have never lost before, ever, and now they were here, thinking about the people that were suddenly gone.

_"Steve?" Steve turns around and looks at Bucky, who has a strange and confused expression. He holds up his hand, that has disappeared. It spreads over his body, and Bucky drops his gun and falls to the ground. But he never reaches it. And Steve had to witness everything, he had to see his best friend and the only thing left from his past vanish._

Tears started forming in Steve's eyes, but he blinked them away and stood up, looking at the rest of the team. He couldn't read their minds, but considering their body language he could understand that they were as happy about it all as he was.

Thor's grip of his ax was tight, and his eyes stared at the exact point Thanos had snapped his fingers. His fingers sparked of lightning, and his eyes were filled with rage, guilt, and pain.

Natasha was on the place Bucky had vanished. One hand was on the ash, and she looked at the other with tears in her eyes. Steve rarely saw her cry, and to see her do it now was something that broke him even more.

Rhodey was out of his suit and tapped rapidly on his phone, mumbling words Steve could not decipher, but he managed to make out Tony's name.

And Steve, he was just standing there, thinking. He wanted to contact Tony, he wanted to make sure he's okay, he... Steve sighed. There was nothing that he could do about that right now, and even if it was, he'd lost his chance many years ago.

"What do we do Steve?" Bruce was out of the Hulk Buster, fidgeting his sleeves and biting his lip, a clear sign of nervousness. Steve made a mental note of getting him a stress ball later.

"Just as Tony said all those years ago. If we can't protect the earth you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it"


	2. On the way

It had been a tough week for the Asgardians. First, their king died and Hela, the goddess of death, took over Asgard. Then, in order to stop her, Thor and Loki unleashed Surtur which destroyed Asgard in the process. What remained of the Asgardian's fled on a ship heading towards earth. And then Thanos happened. Thor has ordered Valkyrie to get the hurt or defenseless ones away from the fight, but the ship broke down in the middle of space.

What was left of the Asgardian's was now drifting around in space, trying to get over the shock.

Half their people were dead, including their prince and king. Or, they assume as much, but since they hadn't heard anything from them, and the fact that what they were facing off against was a mad titan, there weren't many other possibilities.

"The engine is fixed now," Valkyrie turned around. She hadn't heard Korg open the door to the meeting room she had taken residence in, but he was standing there with the weird creature Meek by his side "What will we do captn'?"

"We need to go back, to know if they survived," Valkyrie said, turning her face towards a window, showing the glowing orbs called stars outside. She heard Korg answer something, though she wasn't sure what, before he left the room once more.

Valkyrie took a sweep from a Whiskey bottle as the ship started up, and as soon as it was emptied she threw the bottle against the window with a loud yell. She couldn't handle this, not again. It reminded her too much of the Valkyrie slaughter so many years ago, and she had barely coped with that. Her breaths were sharp as she buried her face in her hands, tears slowly escaping her eyes.

 _'It's going to be okay'_ An all too familiar voice whispered in her head

"It's not," She whispered to herself, her own voice cracking.

She could feel the ship slow down.

Valkyrie looked up towards the window, and had to wipe the tears out of her eyes to see what was happening out there. She stood up straight and put on the best bold face she could, and walked out of the meeting room, trying to get the picture of her dead people that were floating around in space out of her head.

Her steps echoed between the walls of the ship, and it felt hollow. She wasn't used to walking in this armor by herself, it was always someone beside her. She could almost feel Gudrun's hand brush against her own, knowing that when she looked up at her a smirk would stretch across her face. It was so easy to remember the clanking of swords hitting their armor as they walked, the slight flutter of their capes, the clacking of heels as _she_ walked ahead of them all, her raven hair falling behind her-

Valkyrie hadn't even realized that she had entered the bridge before almost a hundred eyes looked up at her, all filled with fear and worry.

She sighed and looked towards the room's window, once again seeing the corpses of the fallen. She didn't recognize any of them, which made her realize how long she'd truly been gone.

Freyja, Bragi, Tyr, Idun- they all were gone, and she had done nothing about it.

Valkyrie looked out over the Asgardians, some facing the window and some with their eyes on her. They obviously expected her to do something, to say something encouraging that would lighten the mood, but she had nothing.

Gudrun appeared once again before her eyes, but this time instead of walking beside her with a smile, she was laying a few feet away, a dagger piercing her from behind.

It was a small hand pulling on her cape that made the image of Gudrun disappear. Valkyrie looked down and saw a small Asgardian girl with with piercing green eyes look up at her.

"Prince," The girl said, and Valkyrie furrowed her brows in confusion. The girl repeated the word, this time pointing out the window, and Valkyrie looked up towards where she was pointing.

And sure enough, floating freely outside the window was their prince, blue and everything, but most importantly, breathing.

* * *

  
The woman had started to melt up a bit, which was thankful since Tony didn't want to spend days without talking.

It would take a couple of days to get to earth, but Tony was unsure if he could survive that long. His wound was deep and painful, but he hadn't mentioned it to the woman. He didn't want to bother her too much, and it would feel wrong to complain about a wound when she had experienced such enormous pain in her life.

"You told me you grew up by Thanos," It had been two hours of silence before Tony spoke. He could hear his voice wavering a bit, and he prayed silently that the woman wouldn't notice.

"Yes," She replied from her seat on the ship that she'd said used to belong to Quill.

"Do you know any of his weaknesses?" Tony had a slight of hope in his voice when he asked, but she shook her head.

"He only had one, and she is gone. With all the stones, we wouldn't even be able to get close before he killed us like the rest of them. But I need to find him, I need to avenge her" Her robotic voice was or the most part rid of any emotion, but he'd noticed that whenever she spoke about either Thanos or her sister it would get colder, and her words harder.

"We will help you," Tony mumbled back with a slight smile. 

She gave him an odd look "We?" She asked, but Tony wasn't paying attention

"How the hell does my still phone work?!"

* * *

  
It had been a few days since the battle of Wakanda, and the country had tried to reorganize itself after the army and snap. Thanks to Wakanda's technology, the progress of repairing the damage went well, while the world outside wasn't as lucky.

Many of those who vanished was driving, so it led to many car crashes and accidents. It was the same with planes, reports on crashes were all over the news.

Many world leaders and government officials disappeared as well, including the U.S president and a good chunk of the government.

Wakanda had a similar problem with their king and Queen gone, Shuri would be crowned the new queen of Wakanda. They would need a leader as soon as possible, so they have organized her coronation to happen in one week's time. No challenge would be needed though, the tribe's didn't see it as necessary.

After the earth found out about the source of the sudden death's on the planet, there where mixed reactions. And most of them involved that they blamed the Avengers for not protecting them. Then there was what was left of the government who still wanted to arrest them all.

The past days had only considered of planning, grief, and small missions. The team knew that they didn't need to do it, but they did just to keep the hopes up.

When they weren't doing anything, Steve was taking his anger out on a punching bag. They still hadn't heard anything from Tony, and he feared the worst.

After two years of being apart in that way, two years of waiting for a call, two years of grief for not telling him when he found out.

In one word, it had been painful. And now Tony may be dead.

They had been given rooms in the palace and were allowed to stay in Wakanda as long as they wished.

Steve gave the bag one last hard punch and it flew off the chain. He sighed and didn't even bother to pick it up, he just sat down on his bed, head in his hands.

"Still Nothing?" Steve looked up to see Natasha standing in the doorframe, her arms crossed.

"No, still nothing," He replied as Natasha walked up to the soldier and sat down beside him.

"He is surely fine, just out chilling in space," He smiled weakly, but he knew it was a lie.

_"We need a plan of attack!"_

_"I have a plan. Attack"_

He still has nightmares from that night.

_"Shit!"_

_"Language!"_

He still hears the shield's metal crash against his suit

_"He's my friend"_

_"So was I"_

The last memory made him grip his hand around his wrist. The words were still there, hunting him day after day of his lost friend and soulmate.

Why didn't he tell him earlier?

"He can be dead. I can't believe it. Out of all the people I thought would one day die, he was the one lowest on the list," Natasha put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

He looks at her, and then her hand, and he sees something new with her "Is that a new ring?" It was a silver ring with a black diamond. Beautiful, yes, but Natasha isn't one for jewelry. She'd said that it just caused inconvenience in her life. The only thing he'd seen her wear was the arrow necklace she got from Clint, and when asked about she'd simply just said that she simply just liked it, plus it was small and hardly noticeable. The ring wasn't.

"It's a long story," She said without taking her eyes off it, and Steve could have sworn that he saw a tear in her eye. "Just a promise to a friend" She got up and left the room, leaving Steve alone.

* * *

  
Thor lost more than anyone that day. So much that he didn't even want to think about it. But he was constantly reminded of how he failed. Failed to protect his people, failed to take care of his loved one, failed to revenge them.

_"Brunnhilde, Korg, get as many as you can away from here!!" As soon as Loki saw the ship he told everyone to evacuate. He didn't tell why, but the fear in his eyes told him that he was serious._

_"Thor I need to speak to you!!" The king stops and turns around. Loki stands behind him, still with fear in his eyes and as stressed as the rest of the people on the ship_

_"What is it, love?"_

_"I-" He struggles with his words "I'm sorry."_

_"For what?" Thor cupped his brother's cheeks and looked deep into his green shining eyes_

_"Nothing yet" He mumbles. "Thanos has the black order on his side, his most powerful and trusted children. I don't see how we can win this."_

_"How do you know so much about him?" Loki broke free from his grasp and ignored the question._

"Hey," Thor broke free from his painful memory and looks into the eyes of Rocket, standing a few feet away, "How are you feeling?"

"Empty" That was true. Thor has always had a reason to fight, to win. But now he didn't know anymore.

"Heard about your brother's rampage here" He sat down on the log beside him. They were outside on the exact place Thanos had disappeared, and if you looked closely you could still see blood on the ground.

_**Failure** _

"Heard about your friend's adventures. Heard anything from them?" Rocket's ears lowered and he shook his head, looking down.

"Terra's communication devices sucks, so I can't use that. And since they left for the reality stone and Thanos came back with it..." He sighed, fidgeting a little with his paws as he looked over to where the tree had disappeared.

"You aren't fully sure if they are dead or not sweet rabbit. They can be alive, and on their way," He hoped that what was left of Asgard was on its way as well, but it hurt in his broken heart that there was one person he was sure wouldn't be there.

"How do you do it?" Rocket looked up at Thor with sadness in his eyes, "How do you keep so calm even though you have lost everything?" Thor did honestly not know the answer.

_"The Tesseract, or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference?" Thanos' voice was cold, wiped of any emotion._

_"Oh I do," Loki's voice was casual, and almost bored. Thor raised his head, trying to meet his eye but he avoided it. "Kill away"_

_Thor did not get a chance to react. He felt steel hands around his head, crushing it as if his head would be nothing more than a ripe fruit. The Asgardian's mouth twisted into a scream as pain ripped through him so intense it left nothing but blackness. He was blinded, bewildered by the torture as the hands closed tighter around his head in a merciless, deadly grip._

_'It's for the best' Thor thought and felt is strength weaken as the hands around his head slowly and painfully squeeze the life out of him._

_"All right stop!!"_

He was willing to sacrifice everything for Thor. He knew that he would die, that Thanos would succeed, that the dagger wouldn't work. But he still gave up the tesseract, just so Thor could live.

But why?


	3. Hope

They couldn't heal him.

All they could do was place his limp injured body on the meeting room's table, and hope for the best.

Valkyrie had no idea that their prince was a Jotun, and if he would survive this whole ordeal then she would ask him about it.

The warrior was facing away from Loki, staring outside the window on the stars and planets that flew by, a half-empty bottle in her hand. The new destination was Midgard since that was where they were headed in the first place, and possibly they could help these Avengers types that Thor had rambled about.

She sighed and looked over at Loki's helpless body. She hadn't seen much of him on their journey to Midgard as he'd mostly stayed cooped up in his and Thor's chambers, but from what she had seen, he was a pretty decent and energetic guy. Or gal, sometimes, depending on the day. But seeing him lying there, bleeding out of his nose and a huge purple mark stretching over his throat, was almost depressing. He was still unconscious, and the one healer on the ship had said that it would be a miracle if he woke up without proper medical care. If they were lucky, Midgard may have something that would make it possible to touch Jotun skin.

Valkyrie looked back out into the endless void of space, taking a sip from her bottle and leaned back, closing her eyes. It would take two days to get to Midgard, two days of waiting and starving, two days of hope for survival, two days of Valkyrie needing to keep their spirits alive.

Her senses perked up as she heard something from behind her. It was faint, barely audible at all, but her years of training to be a warrior and personal guard had made her sensitive to sounds and movements, a skill that made it very distracting on Sakaar since it was constantly moving and very, _very_ loud.

Valkyrie carefully put her hand on her blade and tried to as discreetly as possible turn her head around, just to get a look of what had made the sound.

And as soon as she saw a person standing over Loki, a hand on his neck, all her instincts screamed at her to kill the person who dares hurt her prince.

She jumped up from her chair, pulled out her blade, and pointed it directly at the intruder, her eyes cold.

That was, until she saw those striking blue eyes and that perfect raven hair, and those pearl white teeth grin back at her.

Valkyrie dropped her blade in shock, taking a step back as she stared at the one thing that had ruined her entire life.

_Hela._

* * *

Natasha was starting to get worried. It has been four days since the snap, and still nothing from Clint. Unlike Steve, she didn't believe Clint was dead. He had been fighting two faceless armies with a bow and arrow for God's sake, he could survive a snap.

But still, the thought was always in the back of her head, screaming at her that she would just give up and accept that her first and best friend was dead.

She looked down at her ring again and sighed. Nat had already lost James, the one person she could connect with, who she could talk with about her red room days who truly understood, who was her first and only love.

She laughed a little at the thought. If someone would have told her in her Red Room days that she would have ever found her soulmate, she would probably have killed them. Well, she would have killed them regardless, they would probably have been a stranger.

She wrapped her hand around her ankle on the exact place where the words where written. The four words that her Madame wanted to cut out when they first appeared, because of the language they were written in.

Natasha picks up the phone she was given again and tries to call Clint for the hundredth time. Still nothing.

"Have you tried calling Laura?" Natasha turned around and faced Steve who stood behind her leaning against a wall.

"No," Nat mumbled and mentally hit herself. Natasha has met Clint's cousin just a few years after meeting him, and despite not liking most people, she had enjoyed Laura's company. And then she had become a single mom of first a son, then a daughter, then another on, and all of a sudden she was Auntie Nat.

"Do that later, Shuri requests our presence in the Throne Room," He said with a gentle smile before leaving the room.

Natasha nods and rolls up her pants a little so she can look at the words again. They're written in beautiful blue handwriting on the exact same spot as James' were. She still hasn't gotten used to the fact that it's blue and not black like it used to.

And that is when she came to a realization. The words hadn't changed to Red like they should when your soulmate dies. She hadn't felt that sting she had when James spoke the words.

Natasha blinked a few times and shook her head, as if the words would turn red if she stared at them hard enough. But no, they remained blue, which drew her to one conclusion.

James, and everyone else that had disappeared in the snap, was alive.

* * *

Peter doesn't remember much. He was on Titan with Mr. Stark, then it started to hurt incredibly much. He grabbed on to Mr. Stark desperate for help, but the pain didn't go away. He fell to the ground and the last thing he saw before it went black was Mr. Stark's terrified eyes.

He woke up in a completely orange place, and met Uncle Ben! He'd hugged him hard, and Uncle Ben had tried to comfort him and explained that he was not dead, but that he had to go.

It went black again.

He woke up again at what looked like to be the same place, but this time there were more people there.

Doctor Strange, that guy with a metal arm, the guy with wings from Germany, she with weird magic, the Panther dude, Mantis, a human-like tree, Drax, other Peter, a bald man, a guy with a cape, a blue lady, and a green lady.

It was only Doctor Strange, the weird magic woman and the green lady who were awake except himself, the others seemed to be unconscious except for the movements with their mouths, like they were talking.

"Oh you're awake," Peter's eyes snapped up and looked at the Doctor

"Where are we?" Peter asked looking around. The place seemed endless with no walls and no clouds. Just orange sky, orange ground, and orange everything.

"The soul world I suspect. After the snap, our bodies must have been destroyed but our souls been transported here. I read about the place once, it's a dimension that exists inside the soul stone," The Doctor replied, and the collar on his cloak moved up and down, as if it nodded in agreement.

Peter took in what Doctor Strange had said, but if he was being honest it was not easy. He'd just suddenly have to come to terms with the fact that his body had been destroyed, and he was not trapped in a pocket dimension inside a rock.

He looked at the three conscious people. Doctor Strange seemed to have talked with the woman with magic who was paying with a small ball of magic in her palm, and the green lady sat a bit away from them with her legs crossed and didn't seem to be paying attention to them at all.

The magic woman looked up at him and squinted her eyes a little. "I remember you. From Germany" She said tilting her head. The woman looked far from okay, her hair was messy, her cheeks puffy and her eyes still blank from tears.

"I'm Peter," He said reaching out her hand with a smile in an attempt to be polite, but instead of shaking it as people do, she grabbed his hand and used it to pull him in for a hug while sobbing loudly.

Peter was taken back a little, but he tried to collect himself as he carefully hugged her back, looking towards the Doctor for help, but he seemed to be having a one-sided conversation with his cloak and not be paying attention.

"I-I'm sorry it's just-" She tried, but her voice was caught off by another sob, and she hid her face in her hands.

Peter carefully took her hands in his own, before once again embracing her as caringly as he could, and she wrapped her arms around him once more.

They let go and looked at each other, Peter trying to give her a reassuring look, and the woman just letting out a small laugh before looking down at her hands.

"My name is Wanda," She said, her voice a lot more stable, "And I'm sorry for all of this. But I just lost the love of my life and got reunited with my mother, and found out that my brother and biological father is alive so there's a lot of feelings there, and then I see you, and you're just a child and shouldn't have to carry so much and that reminds me so much of him," Tears once again started to fall from her eyes, and Peter softly stroked her arm, trying his best to be there for her even though they barely knew each other.

Peter just then noticed that a few other people around them had started to regain consciousness, and looked in the direction of Doctor Strange for answers of what was happening, but because he was occupied they turned to Peter and Wanda.

"We're inside the orange stone because Thanos snapped his fingers," Peter said before any of them had time to ask any questions, without taking his focus off Wanda. She'd seemed to have calmed down, as she was no longer hyperventilating.

Peter raised his eyebrows slightly, and the woman nodded with a smile, mouthing a thank you to him.

Peter looked back at the group right as the last people woke up, which was the bald man, the blue lady, and the man with the cape.

When he'd seen other people wake up that he didn't recognize, like the tree or the green lady, there had always been someone who recognized them, but this time he could read the confusion on everyone's faces.

"And, who are you?" The man with the wings asked as he stood up, nodding his head towards the three people.

The blue woman stood up as well, and just as she did her form changed into that of a woman with white skin and blonde hair.

Peter is taken back for a second, but if he's being honest it's not the weirdest thing he's seen in his life at this point. He could hear Wanda whisper a 'What the hell' beside him.

"Dude, what the fuck?!" Other Peter said as he took a few steps away from the woman, his eyes still blank after reuniting with the green lady.

"What happened?" She asked and looked around, seemingly focusing most of her attention on the bald man, who was still sitting on the ground, and the man in the cape, that was kneeling beside him with a hand on his shoulder, both looking at the lady.

"More important question, who are you?" The guy with the metal arm asks, looking from the trio to the Guardians plus the talking tree, who seemed to be as unsure of the many strangers as Peter felt. He'd always want to meet his heroes, but not all at ones while being trapped in a gem.

"My name is Charles," The bald man said in a very familiar voice," This is Erik," He nodded towards the man with the cape beside him" and her name is Raven," The woman waved awkwardly as she was introduced, "We mean no harm, we ensure you. Right, Erik?" The man, Erik, grumbled slightly at the words, and Charles chuckled slightly before looking back at them again, "What exactly happened? I felt an incredible power be unleashed and then students started to fade left and right. The same with Erik, Raven, and apparently me."

"What do you mean you 'felt'?" The wing guy asks with raised eyebrows and crossed arms, and Peter took notice of how the Panther dude glanced slightly at him.

"I am a telepath, Samuel. One of the most powerful there is. But there's something wrong. I can't reach further than this group. Something seems to be blocking me" Charles had two fingers against his temple as he spoke and he looked on the rest of them, person after person. Peter felt slightly uncomfortable when the apparent Telepath's eyes landed on him, and he tried to stand a little behind Wanda. Just in case.

"What do you mean blocking you? And who are these people?" Raven asked, kneeling beside Charles.

"Remember New York, Sokovia, Germany, and DC? It's those people. Except the five over there," Charles said, nodding his head towards the Guardians "They seem to be from space. And him," He nodded in the direction of Doctor Strange "Because he got offended when he was afflicted with them," Raven and Erik looked at the remaining group with similar looks, that both contained both hatred and impressiveness.

And that was when Peter realized where he had heard him before

"You're that voice!" Everyone, including Charles himself, gave him confused looks because of his outburst "A month ago, your voice echoed through everyone's heads. You talked about that the world would end and that we needed to protect the weak ones. That was so cool!" Peter beamed at him, and the man looked down in slight embarrassment as Erik smirked smugly at him.

The Doctor looked at Charles with a slightly tilted head, his cloak's edge wrapped around his arm.

"You're Charles Xavier aren't you? The mutant and founder of Xavier's Institute For Gifted Youngsters" Charles nodded slightly, as the Doctor turned to the woman "And Raven Darkholme, the first Mutant who showed her ability to the world," Raven's mouth twitched, and now that The Doctor has said it, he kind of recognized her too," And Erik Lehnsherr I suppose," The Doctor said, turning his head towards him with slightly raised eyebrows, as the man nodded shortly.

"Wait is that you three?" The Panther dude asked, who at this point Peter had recognized as T'Challa Udaku, King of Wakanda, and he was a bit embarrassed that it took him such a long time to figure it out.

"I'm sorry who are they?" Other Peter asked, his arm wrapped tightly around the green woman's waist.

Raven looked at the group, before glancing down at Charles and Erik, who both nodded up at her. Raven sighed deeply before looking up at them all, a strained smile on her face as she spoke, "We are the X-Men."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> X-men, yaaaay!!!
> 
> The timeline is basically that First class was 1999, Days of Future Past was 2015 and Apocolypse was 2018. When I wrote this Dark Phoenix wasn't out yet, so I'm ignoring it completely.
> 
> Doesn't make sense? Well neither does the canon Timeline, sooooo, yeah.
> 
> Also, when everyone died they met someone already passed away, So Wanda met her mom, Strange maybe met the Ancient One or something, Sam met Riley, etc etc
> 
> Also also, Laura is Clint's cousin, because this is my universe and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.


	4. Always

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Procrastination yaaaaaay.
> 
> The reason this took such a long time is because one, school started up and I'm busy with that, and two, I've had to rewrite this chapter four times because I didn't like where it went, and when I finally got it right it was fucking deleted.
> 
> So yeah, sorry y'all

"They aren't dead," Natasha said right as she strode into the throne room, interrupting Shuri who was standing next to the throne.

As she'd walked towards the room, a million possible theories had swirled in Natasha's head about what the soulmark could mean. She'd seen James' body disappear right in front of her eyes, it shouldn't even be possible. The only possibility for a soulmark to go red when the person was still alive was if the person cut off their soulmark, disconnecting the mark to the person's heart. She'd been pretty sure that if a person's whole body turned to ash, it would count as no longer be connected to the person's heart. It just didn't make sense.

The other people in the room looked back at her with questioning faces, and she rolled her eyes dramatically, "The people who got snapped away, they aren't dead," Natasha looked down "My soulmate was one of them, and my soulmark is still blue."

She could see Steve's eyes widen as he quickly pulled his sleeve up to look at his wrist, and how Bruce scratched his neck slightly.

"But their marks wouldn't be connected to their hearts," Shuri said with a confused voice as she walked a few steps closer to Natasha, stroking her wrist softly "It doesn't make sense."

"No, it doesn't," Steve said, looking up at Natasha, "But what exactly makes sense nowadays," She smiled at him thankfully, and he gave her a small smile back.

"We don't know much about the stones," Bruce said looking between Shuri and Natasha "But, I think I know someone who does."

* * *

Valkyrie gritted her teeth widely as she looked at the goddess that slaughtered her race, had the intentions to kill the people in this very ship, and tried to kill her twice just standing there, grinning.

"Get away from him," She hissed, gripping tighter around her blade.

"Finally!" Hela burst out and withdrew her hand from Loki's neck, which caused him to wince slightly "I thought you never were going to notice my presence."

"What do you mean, why are you here?" Valkyrie demanded as she took a step forward and held up her blade so it was only a few inches away from Hela's face.

"Well my brother here is dying, and since all of you here are useless, I figured that I could help out," Her voice was bright and her smile wide, and it made Valkyrie sick to look at.

"Why would you want to help," Valkyrie was growling at this point, she was more than mad at the woman in front of her, she was pissed off, and all her instincts were screaming at her to kill.

"Well, as I said, he's my brother and he's dying. And you can put the sword down Brunnie," Hela gestured vaguely at the weapon in her hand, "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it when your back was turned."

Valkyrie lowered her blade slightly, but still kept it in her hand because there was no way in hel she was talking to this woman without a weapon. Hela raised her eyebrows slightly at the lack of action, but didn't say anything.

"How did you get here, how did you even survive?!" She questioned, her tone just getting louder, but Hela didn't even flinch. She just stood there, arm's crossed, eyebrows raised. She always used to do that when Valkyrie was angry, just take it until she calmed down, and she still hated it.

Hela sighed "Brunnhilde, sweetie, I'm the goddess of death, it takes more than a fire demon to kill me," Hela grinned widely, as if proud of herself, "And look at you, alive and well! It glads me," She smiled and took a couple of steps closer to her, but Valkyrie just backed away which caused Hela's smile to drop.

"Glads you? Please, you tried to kill me last time I checked. Twice."

"Well, I didn't want to kill you!" Her calm demeanor was dropped as she raised her voice, and gone was Princess Hela. Left was only the Goddess of death "Father sent you after me without even talking to me first. It was self-defense!" She snarled and took a step closer, eyes ice cold. "Do I mean anything to you Brunnhilde? Does our childhood mean anything? Or do you just hide that away as you do with all of your problems," She hissed at the warrior in front of her and grinned when Valkyrie took a step back.

"Well, I wasn't the one who killed the others troupe," She growled back.

"Oh, you say? You and that troupe attacked me! You didn't even hesitate to kill me!"

"Do you think that was my choice?! Do you think I volunteered?! No! I was forced by my king!" At this point they had both started yelling, Valkyrie noticed, and she feared that someone inside the ship would hear them.

"Oh, like if it would be the first time you went against his orders," Hela sneered as she crossed her arms, looking to the side in annoyance.

"There's a clear difference between using a different battle strategy and, you know, _refusing to kill Asgard's number one enemy!_ " Valkyrie barked, twirling her blade in her hand just to have something to do with them.

Hela looked back at her with shocked eyes and her mouth agape "That's what he told you?" Her voice was almost a whisper, though it came out more like a hiss "He called me-" The sentence was broken off by a chuckle escaping her lips "My own father called me Asgard's number one enemy, because I disagreed with him," At this point, she was full-on laughing, though Valkyrie could tell it wasn't because she found it funny.

Her laugher was cut off abruptly as she looked up at Valkyrie, her eyes cold and unforgiving "And you believed him?" She sneered, her voice sharp "Norns, you're a fucking moron, always have been always will be."

Valkyrie snorted as she rolled her eyes "Well if you thought of me as such a moron, why did you keep being my friend?"

Hela gritted her teeth as she glared at Valkyrie, and the warrior gripped her blade tighter. It was first at this point that she'd noticed that the goddess' eyes had become watery and that soft tears rolled down her cheeks.

"The reason-" Hela hissed as she strode menacingly towards Valkyrie, which caught the warrior off guard as she was backed into a wall, her blade slack by her side in complete shock, with the goddess only a few inches away from her face "-is because you're the only one who didn't see me as an absolute monster, which is why I love you, you idiot."

...

...

...

_What?_

Valkyrie didn't remember letting go of her blade, just the sound of it hitting the ship floor as she tried to take in the words that had slipped out of the goddess' mouth.

It was the metal clang that seemed to have brought Hela back to reality and made her realize what she'd said, as her eyes widened and she quickly backed away from Valkyrie her eyes looking anywhere but the warrior, as her normally pale skin turned a light pink color.

Valkyrie's mind was somehow empty and racing at the same time, and she did her best to collect her thoughts. She knows she must have looked ridiculous, with her mouth gaping open and her eyes wide, staring at the goddess in front of her who was doing everything to avoid her gaze.

'Lie'

That was the only thing that Valkyrie managed to grapple out of all of the thought tumbling in her mind.

Hela was a lot. Strong, quick, powerful, ambitious, playful, gorgeous, brilliant, the list goes on. But secretful, and a good liar was not what anyone would use to describe her. There was a reason the allfather had forbidden her from attending any meetings, especially during the war.

So for her to say that she'd been harnessing any kind of romantic feelings towards anyone without Valkyrie, her best friend, knowing, was just a blatant lie.

"No," Valkyrie mumbled out as she shook her head slightly, before meeting the eyes of the death goddess "No you don't."

Hela had moved back to sit beside her brother, who strangely enough seemed to relax a bit more when she was by his side.

Hela's lips curved into a small smile "Do you remember when we were children? And how we used to run around, pretend to be a king and his soldier, how we used to hide whenever we had to go inside?"

Valkyrie does remember that. Hela had been very carefree as a child, with a constant smile on her face and a tiny bit of color on her skin. It was before she started calling herself she, and before she started wearing all black just for the sake of drama.

"Yeah?" Valkyrie said with a questioning tone, still trying to figure out how it was relevant.

"Well, you were the only one who did that with me," Hela looked up, her eyes blank but her lips still a smile "When I was announced as the god of death, people started avoiding me, stare weirdly at me, whisper behind my back," She chuckled lightly "Everyone except for you."

To be honest, Valkyrie was not aware of that. She'd noticed that Hela had been more absent after she was revealed as the god of death, but she only thought that it was because it was stressful being a god.

Valkyrie had never cared that her best friend was the god of death. It wasn't as if Hela was the god of dying, people did that anyway, she just handled the souls after they were dead, just like the Valkyries.

Hela's smile dropped slightly as she continued, "It was during that time I started loving you, and everything about you. The way that you laughed, the way you passionately talked about being a Valkyrie, the way you could easily do pushups with me on your back, the way that your hair would frame your face when you had it lose," She sighed, "But your training as a Valkyrie started to take up more of your time, and the war started which created so much death, so we barely met, but it still didn't help, I still loved you."

Her voice was cracking at this point, and Valkyrie wanted to reach out to her, to be there for her friend like she'd been in the childhood that she spoke so fondly of, but she hesitated. The Aesir in front of her was still the one who'd been the cause of the destruction of Asgard, the death of the Valkyries, the reason Gudrun was no longer at her side.

As if on cue, Hela's face got a bit sour as she glared at the wall beside her, "But then you and that blonde Valkyrie became friends, and then more than that, and it took all my strength not to just demand of her leave you be," Hela snorted slightly "But, I noticed how happy you always looked when you were with her, the way your eyes would glitter in a way they never did when you were around me, so I knew that I had to let you go, for the sake of your happiness."

Valkyrie had noticed how Hela had changed when she had become close with Gudrun, but that was right when the war had started so she had just assumed that it was just the stress and pressure of the situation at hand, not that she'd been jealous.

But it was still one question that lingered on her mind, one question that she'd been asking herself ever since Hela's confession.

"Why did you try to kill me, if you had loved me?" Valkyrie slowly kneeled to pick up her blade, while slowly studying Hela's reaction.

The goddess was silent for a moment, before she stood up slowly, while still looking at Valkyrie sadly "I never wanted to," She whisper, a tear finally escaping her eye, and more than ever did Valkyrie desire to comfort her friend, but she stood her ground "I was just so angry of Father's actions, and in my blindness, I hurt the one I loved the most."

Valkyrie took a step forward, tilting her head slightly with a soft expression on her face.

More tears started streaming down the Goddess' face, ruining her makeup "It was first when it was over that I realized what I'd done, and I thought that I deserved whatever punishment that father would give me, which was to be imprisoned in my own kingdom for thousands of years like some low life criminal," Hela snorted, "Quite ironic if I'm being honest."

Valkyrie placed her blade beside the unconscious prince and placed her hand gently on Hela's bicep in a desire to comfort her. The goddess looked surprised by her action, and she looked questioning up at Valkyrie.

"Go on," Valkyrie said, motioning softly with her head for the goddess to continue.

"I just saw my chance," Hela whispered, her voice soft and weak, "A chance to get back at father, to prove that I could be a better king than he'd ever been, to take back what was rightfully mine," Hela glanced down at Loki with a cold eye, "I took m anger out on my brother's who'd done nothing wrong, and banished them from their home. I killed so many of my people, and proved that I was truly the monster they all have claimed I was," Hela brushed a lock that had fallen into her face behind her ear, "And when I saw you, in all your beautiful glory, I wanted to drop everything but my pride wouldn't allow me to."

Hela carefully looked up, her eyes watery and filled with so many emotions at once "I won't ask you to return my feelings, Brunnie. All I have to say is that I'm so, so sorry, and I hope you can consider my forgiveness."

Valkyrie was conflicted. She'd finally heard the side of the story she'd desired to hear for almost two thousand years, but that still didn't change what happened. Gudrun was still dead because of the person in front of her. She was till the last valkyrie in existence. Asgard was still gone.

"I am sorry for what the allfather did to you Hela," She finally whispered, as she stroked a tear from her cheek "And I understand your motives, but I can't bring myself to forgive you. At least not yet."

Hela looked unsure of what to do after Valkyrie had finally spoken, so the warrior acted instead.

The embrace was tight, and Valkyrie buried her face in her friend's messy raven black hair. Hela was taken back at first, but she quickly pulled herself together and wrapped her arms around Valkyrie.  
  


* * *

An hour after the meeting, Bruce, Thor, and Natasha entered the Bifrost.

They had decided that those three should go since Natasha was the one who had noticed the mark, Bruce was the one who knew the person they were meeting and Thor could summon the Bifrost to transport them easily across the globe.

When they landed Thor, who was used to the feeling stood steady on his legs while Natasha and Bruce had both managed to fall on the ground

"You could have warned us," groaned Natasha as she glared at the god.

"Well, what's the fun in that?" The god responded with a wide grin, reaching his hand out to help Bruce up.

Natasha rubbed her ankle caringly before standing up, and Thor felt a pang of jealousy.

His words had gone red a long time ago, just a few seconds after they had been spoken. They were placed on his stomach, right on the place where Loki had stabbed him during the battle of New York. He should have realized it sooner, that the words he had spoken at that moment would mean more to the younger than any others.

Thor had asked Loki how he'd done it, how his words had been reddened despite the fact that the mischief god had been standing in front of him, breathing and alive. He'd just responded shortly that he'd cut it off when he "Died" on Svartalfheim, so it had been disconnected to his heart.

Natasha was the one who snapped him out of his thoughts, by nudging his side hardly and nodding towards the almost decay that was New York.

"What happened here?" Thor asked, looking out over the city that he'd loved that had been replaced by a dust-covered ghost town.

"Looks like the snap mixed with the battle against Thanos children had a big impact on this place," Bruce replied, carefully stepping over a pile of dust on his way to the building they were looking for.

"You sure he's not dead?" Natasha asked as she followed after him, Thor closely behind.

"It's Fifty Fifty Nat, you can only hope," Bruce said, before knocking firmly on the door to the Sanctum Sanctorum.

The door was opened by a man Thor had never met before, dressed in dark red robes with an annoyed expression on his face.

"What do you want?" He asked, scanning the people in front of him, before his eyes landed on Bruce and a glint of recognition lit up in his eyes. He stepped aside hesitantly, allowing the three to enter.

It was first when Thor entered the sanctum that he recognized it's structure and turned to the man with an excited glint in his eyes "I've been here before, with another sorcerer, his name was Strange, right?"

"What was so strange about it?" Natasha questioned as she looked around the room, her eyes seeming to fall on the ever-changing wallpaper that showed symbols in different languages Thor only knew the basics of.

"Strange was his name, Stephen Strange," The man replied, taking in what Natasha was looking at, and waved his hand lightly which made the symbols disappear, "Now what do you need, I'm quite busy."

"The infinity stones," Bruce blurted out, making the man raise his eyebrows in surprise, "Or at least, information about them," He quickly corrected, looking down at his hands.

"More exactly, the way they kill," Natasha said, crossing her arms while turning to fully face the man.

The man seemed to think deeply for a second, before he flickered easily with his hand and their location changed to the library.

Thor had seen it coming and had had a moment to prepare himself, but Bruce had needed to grab onto the nearest bookshelf to keep himself steady while Natasha grabbed onto Thor's arm, looking around the new room in disbelief.

The man had himself grabbed a book from a nearby bookcase and started flipping through it while talking, "Most of them kill how'd you expect. The Power Stone destroys your body, the Space Stone can transport you into dangerous locations, like places without air, the Mind stone can fill your head with so much information you can't comprehend it-"

"And the Soul stone?" Thor asked, interrupting the man abruptly, but he was getting impatient. His fingers itched for a weapon and he longed for something to perish by his hand, specifically Thanos himself. He could almost hear Loki's irritated but still fond sigh at his war lust, and it tore in his heart.

The man closed the book sharply before flickering his fingers again, transporting them to a different part of the library, and this time Thor grabbed onto Natasha's shoulder for safety while Bruce held onto another bookcase.

The man picked out a different book and started flickering through it, mumbling to himself.

"Why the soul stone?" Natasha hissed at him, glancing up.

Thor shrugged, looking around the new library location "It's the one I know the least about, plus it may have a connection to the soul marks, considering they both have the word soul in them," Natasha rolled her eyes fondly at his logic while smiling slightly.

Thor and Natasha had never been too close to each other, and they had way too few conversations between each other. He'd always liked her, she reminded him a lot of Loki in all the good ways, and he had always seen her utter devotion to the team, and the sacrifices she was willing to take for it.

"The soul stone-" The man spoke up and looked at the three, before promptly slamming the book in his hand, "-has no information about it."

"What?!" Natasha called out, "How can it have no information about it, there must be something!"

The man shrugged simply as he put the book back, "No one knows where the stone is even located, much less what abilities it possesses."

Natasha looked like she wanted to protest further, which Thor could absolutely agree with, when her small mobile device made on of their funny little sounds, and she picked it up from her pocket and glanced at Thor, "It's Steve, he says that something just entered the atmosphere, something that isn't from earth."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm a lesbian, can you tell?
> 
> Hela is trans in this universe, in case you didn't pick up on that, just because I picked up all the vibes from her. I dunno how it works in Asgard with gender transition, maybe they use magic or something.
> 
> Peter will be trans as well, just because I get the vibes from him as well.
> 
> Bye y'all!!


	5. Welcome Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I know, this is really late, but I have school and stuff to deal with, so sue me

The first thing Loki felt was pain beyond imagination around his throat. The second thing was the cold solid surface under him, and he couldn't help but furrow his brows.

_Where was he?_

The last thing he remembered was a tight grip around his neck his feet lifted off the ground and a muffled voice crying out for him.

Now it was quiet and calm, the only sound he could make out seemed far away.

He squinted his eyes open and hissed as the bright light hit his eyes. He brought a hand up to cover the light shining down on him, but discovered that he could barely move it without a surge of agony move through his body, and he had to stop himself from screaming.

Something blocked his view, and a shadow fell over his face, while a hand grabbed his chin a bit too harshly, making him wince.

"He's awake!" The shadow called, before disappearing from his sight, and the light stung in them for another moment before a second shadow appeared above him.

"My prince?" The shadowy figure asked, holding its hand just above him, but he seemed hesitant to touch him, "Loki, it's me, can you hear me?"

Loki blinked. He blinked again. The voice was familiar, as was the use of the title, but it still took him a moment to piece it together. He needed to work on that later.

"Valkyrie?" He said, but it sounded more like a strained whisper than anything else. His voice was dry, and just to get that simple word out caused him immense pain.

Valkyrie looked up at another person, "Get him some water," she hissed, and Loki managed to make out something moving away at the corner of his eye, but his neck hurt too much for him to even bother turning his head.

"Where-" Loki tried, even though his throat was throbbing "Where am I?" He managed to stutter out before Valkyrie hushed him softly.

"Try not to talk, it'll only worsen the pain," She said, grabbing onto something beyond Loki's view. "You're on what's left of the ship, we're on our way to Midgard to seek aid and to figure out what happened. Here," She held out a cup with a clear liquid inside, "Drink," She demanded, putting the cup against his lips, and he gladly let the cool water slide down his throat.

"He needs to sit up," A second voice said, and Loki recognized it as the person who'd grabbed his chin when he woke up. He felt a pair of arms grab him from behind and pull him up much less than softly, causing him to hiss in pain and Valkyrie to glare at the person behind him.

He was propped up against a wall so the light was out of his eyes, and he could finally see things properly. The room was dark and only seemed to contain two people, Valkyrie and whoever was at his side, and whom he couldn't really make out.

"Loki, I need you to use what remains of your Seidr to heal your throat, we will land on Midgard in just a few hours and we need you with us, as you're the only one who's properly been the before," Valkyrie said.

Loki snorted at her words, despite the pain it caused him. Yes, he'd been there recently, but he doubted that he was any popular among people, and that the so-called "Avengers" wouldn't just kill him the minute his foot hit the ground.

Despite that, he still collected the seidr he had left in his being and focused it on healing his bruises and wounds.

"Something happened across the universe," Valkyrie said while Loki healed himself, "A powerful serge, radiating from Midgard."

"I noticed," Loki said, his voice a lot more stable with his wound mostly healed, but his body weakened from the lack of Seidr, "The power of the Infinity Stones."

"Helvete!" Someone shouted from behind him, and as soon as he turned around his blood ran cold.

Standing just beside the table, running her hands through her hair with a panicked look, was the reason that Loki's home was destroyed.

"Loki, it's okay," Valkyrie said from beside him, but he could barely register the words that were spoken. All his focus was on the blue eyes that stared warily back at him, the same blue eyes he'd only seen in one place before.

"Calm down," Valkyrie spoke again, this time reaching out to touch his hand, but as fast as she did she pulled back with a wince.

It was first then that he actually looked down at his own skin, and noticed how the usually pale color had turned to an icy blue, with strange markings running all over.

"Perfect," Loki muttered to himself, barely bothering with it as it was his least concerning issue at the time.

"Where's Thor?" He asked as he stood up, before grabbing the table when his legs nearly gave in under him.

Norns, was he this weak?

Loki waited for a reply as he tried to stand on his own two legs, but when no came he turned towards Valkyrie who had a sad look in her eyes as she stared back.

"Oh," Loki tried to sound as composed as possible, but he noticed how his voice wavered slightly and he hated it. "Well, next question," He raised his arm in the direction of the goddess, trying to sound as nonchalant about the answer to the previous question as he could, "What is she doing here?!"

Hela put a hand on her chest and gasped as if she was offended, and it made Loki sick to look at.

"Loki, I know you how you feel, but listen," Valkyrie stood in between Loki and the hellish creature "She saved your life, you were on the brink of death and without her healing, you would have passed."

"That does not excuse it," Loki hissed, curling his fists and longing to regain his strength so he could kill the death goddess once and for all, "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her."

Valkyrie opened her mouth to answer, but Hela was quicker, "We're in a similar seat here little brother," She walked past Valkyrie calmly and stood above him, looking down with a small smile "Both were mistreated by our father, both just wanting to measure up to his high expectations, both cast aside after getting our chance in the sun," The goddess put two fingers under his chin and tilted his head upwards, "Face it little jotun, you and I are the same."

Loki jerked his head away and glared daggers at the bringer of death that seemed to look at him with a mix of pride and pity in her eyes.

"Loki, we can't afford infighting right now," Valkyrie put a hand on Hela's shoulder and pushed her aside, "We're almost at Midgard, and we need both of you in one piece."

"Fine," Loki snarled, turning away from the two, but when he took a step forward his legs gave in under him, and the only thing preventing him from collapsing on the ground which would surely bring him more pain was a strong toned arm that grabbed his waist, keeping him standing.

"Careful," Valkyrie said with a small smirk, and Loki had the urge to kill her then and there.

* * *

Loki learned right before they landed on the open sunny field that the remaining Asgardians had taken Hela's return just as well as he had.

Especially with how the people glared as she walked in front of Loki and Valkyrie, her head held high like there wasn't a whole race that wanted her dead.

The Asgardian's eyes seemed to brighten at the sight of Loki being alive however, which was an interesting sight. People weren't usually that happy when he arrived, but mostly either annoyed or not caring.

He couldn't bring himself to find joy in the situation though, considering the circumstances.

"Stay here with them," Valkyrie mumbled in the direction of Hela, who simply rolled her eyes in response, "And don't do anything stupid, your majesty."

Loki took a deep breath as he looked to the ship door, knowing that when it opened any minute could b his last, depending on how Thor's friends would react.

"Are you ready?" Valkyrie murmured in his ear.

"As I'll ever be," Loki replied.

The first thing Loki saw when the ship door opened was the Midgardian sun. It wasn't nearly as bright and warming as the Asgardian sun, and Loki saw that as a bonus. He'd never liked sunny weather, as it had always felt as he was melting in it. Considering his Jotun biology, that might have been explained.

The second thing was the people in front of the ship, all with drawn weapons and all on their guard.

There was the captain, without his shield but still very much him with his stoic look and ridiculous costume, Barton, who still had that bow in his hand and dark glasses over his eyes, and Loki would lie if he said that he didn't miss him a little, and what seemed to be a rabbit with a gun.

A girl Loki had never seen before with gauntlets on her hands that seemed a bit too young was standing beside the captain, and on her right there were five women with spears that were dressed in similar garments, and Loki guessed they were some form of guard.

Unfortunately neither Romanoff nor Banner was there, as they were the only two that he could honestly stand.

"Loki?" It was the captain's voice that broke the silence that had been created the second that he and Valkyrie stepped out of the ship.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Barton cursed as he grabbed an arrow from the quiver on his back and placed in on the arrow string, aiming it right at Loki, "Give me a reason why I shouldn't pierce that twisted mind of yours right here and now, and it better be a damn good one."

Loki sighed. If he was honest, he was just tired, and would rather just pass out than deal with the puny thoughts of simple midgardians.

"How dare you threaten a prince of Asgard," Valkyrie hissed, holding her dragon fang rather awkwardly in the direction of the archer while trying not to lose her grip on Loki.

Loki glared at her, "We are not here to fight," He said a matter of factly, looking towards the captain as he seemed the least foolish out of the bunch, "My people need help, we're desperate."

"Why do you look like that?" Loki rolled his eyes at the Captain's question, was now really the time to question his appearance?

"Captain, listen," Loki pleaded, "We were attacked, my people are dying, we need aid. I stand before you, not as your enemy but as a prince asking for mercy for the sake of his people."

The Captain seemed to falter slightly at his words, and the same was true for the girl, but Barton simply snarled at him, "Listen here, _your majesty,_ last time you were here you tried to destroy the place at the order of Thanos, how do we know you're not still working for him?"

Loki clenched his jaw at the words, and he could hear how Valkyrie almost growled at his side, "What did I just say about thr-"

"Valkyrie!" Loki interrupted, glaring angrily at her, "Enough!"

The warrior only grumbled words Loki could not make out in response.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" The girl asked in a thick accent Loki had never heard before, taking a careful step towards the two, just to have one of the soldiers put her spear out in front of the girl to stop her.

"I-" Valkyrie said, raising her head in pride, "-am Brunnhilde Budledottir, the last of the Valkyries and a sworn protector to the throne of Asgard, and I'd not recommend crossing me, Midgardian."

"Jesus christ she's like Thor when we first met him," Barton muttered, and Loki could feel rage flare up in his chest. How dare he speak of him that way?

Valkyrie seemed to have taken offense by that as well, as he could see how she bared her teeth while glaring harshly at the archer, and this time Loki didn't even feel like stopping her. He was just so tired.

"You're talking about a king of Asgard, try to show some respect," Valkyrie let go of Loki, who had to grab onto the ship wall so he wouldn't fall to the ground, and stalked towards the group with her dragon fang tight in her grip.

"Alright, I've had enough!" Barton said, right before he let go of the bowstring which sent the arrow flying in Loki's direction.

And as the arrow was hurling through the air, it was as if Loki saw his life flash before his life. All the times he'd faked his death just to mess with Thor, all the times he'd spent by his mother's side, all the times he had tried to get his father's approval. Maybe he deserved it, to die this way, after what he'd done.

But the arrow never reached its goal. Instead, it was cleaved in half by a black dagger.

"No one," Hela snarled from her place just outside the ship door, her eyes having the same burning look as Thor had whenever he got mad, "And I repeat, _no one,_ messes with my brother."

Loki blinked a few times in confusion. She'd just saved his life. _Hela, the goddess of death, had just saved his life._

Barton seemed to take a step back in both surprise at her sudden appearance and fear of her threat, and he could see how The Captain glared angrily at him.

"Thank you Hela," Loki breathed, somehow even more tired than before. He felt that he was on the brink of collapse, and if he was being honest he just wanted to lay down and perish.

But fate had other plans for him, and a familiar multicolored beam shot down on the ground just a few feet away from them, catching them all by surprise.

"Norns I've missed that sight," Valkyrie sighed beside him, but Loki was barely listening. Instead, he was staring at the Bifrost, waiting for it to disappear and hope that the figure that stepped out was who he wished it would be.

And fate did not disappoint.

Three people stepped out of the Bifrost, all three familiar. There was Romanoff, who looked different without her red hair but still healthy, and Banner, who except for the scar on his forehead looked like from when Loki saw him just a few days prior.

But Loki only glanced briefly at those two. His full focus was on the third person in the middle, towering over the other two with a new ax in his hand, and an unusually grim expression on his face.

"Thor," Loki whispered, just as the older god's gaze fell on him and they locked eyes.

He could make out that he said something, though he didn't hear the words because of the distance, and right as he did both Banner and Romanoff looked in his direction as well, one with relief in his eyes and the other with surprise.

Thor moved towards him, and he desperately wanted to do the same, but he knew that if he tried to as much as stand on his own his legs would collapse under him and he would fall to the ground, so he was forced to stay put and wait for the thunder god to come to him, which took way too long according to him.

He could feel himself being embraced by the older god the second he was close enough to do so, but the only thing he could focus on was that he was there.

Thor was there, he was holding him tight while tangling his hand in his dark hair, he was mumbling nonsense in his ear and most importantly, he was alive.

"Norns Loki," The older god said as he released his tight grip on Loki's torso to put his hands on the side of his head and look into his eyes. He'd gained a new amber one, from what Loki could tell. It was pretty, but it didn't come close to his natural lightning blue ones.

"How are you here?" He whispered, "How are you alive?"

"I don't know," Was all he could answer, "Luck," He said with a small grin, which seemed to rub off on the older as he smiled widely, grabbing ahold of him on his arms to lift him up and spin him around happily, just as they'd done when they were still young boys.

Loki laughed, despite the pain he felt, despite everything. Thor had always managed to make him smile even in the darkest moments, just by being there with his bright blue eyes and shining persona.

The moment was interrupted by Hela clearing her throat from behind them, and Thor turning around quickly, one hand gripping the new ax tightly while using the other to shield Loki from her.

"Family reunion without me?" Her eyes glittered as she spoke, "I must admit I am a bit hurt," She stepped towards Thor with long strides, using her dagger to tilt his head upwards, "I love the new eye, dear brother, really suits you."

Loki had to physically hold Thor back from attacking her.

"It's not worth it," He whispered in the blond's ear, rubbing his arm as soothingly as he could to calm him.

"Hey!" Romanoff's voice called out, making all four of them look over in her direction, "Hate to interrupt...whatever this is, and I am definitely going to ask about it later, but maybe that shouldn't be what we focused on at the moment."

"Right," The Captain sighed, lowering his shields and turned towards her, "What have you got?"

"Not much," She replied with a shrug, "The most possible candidate for a way to get them back would be the soul stone, but the Wizard guy barely knew anything about it."

"Then find its Stone-Keeper," Loki interrupted, and for some reason they all looked at him with confusion, except for Hela who seemed to be deep in thought, "Wait, you don't know what a Stone-Keeper is?" He let out a light laugh, "Midgardians, I tell you. Such idiotic creatures."

"Yes we know, we're all inferior to your kind oh high and mighty one, now do you care to enlighten us on what a Stone-Keeper is?" Barton said. He'd lowered his bow after he'd fired the first arrow, but Loki could see how his finger twitched to grab a second.

"It's just what I said, a being guarding an infinity stone. Out grandfather was one for the space stone, who passed on the title to our father," Loki could feel how his mouth tasted bitterly when he called Odin his father, but Thor was beside him and seemed to happy and he didn't want to ruin that.

"Vormir," Hela spoke up, looking at Loki, "If I remember father's lessons correctly. The only stone to choose a new keeper when the old one joins my realm."

"Then what are we waiting for?" The weird rabbit thing said, crossing its furry little arms. Loki could see Thor smirking slightly towards it, guessing that the two knew each other somehow,

It was just then that a loud ringing noise shrieked, startling Loki so much that he almost fell to the ground, had it not been for Thor's strong arm embracing him. He could see out of the corner of his eye that both Valkyrie and Hela grabbed their weapons, but none of the Midgardians seemed too concerned about it.

Banner, who'd been silently hovering nearby since he arrived, picked up a rectangular object from his pocket that Loki recognized as a form of Midgardian technology called a Phoine or something, that they used to communicate with each other.

When Banner looked down at the side of the Phoine that was glowing, he seemed to be caught by surprise of some kind as he immediately dropped it.

"It's Tony," 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You will probs have to wait a while for next chapter, because it's Christmas and I'm working on other stuff as well, so we'll see how this goes


End file.
